Jobs - 83366- Consultant for Comprehensive Country Gaps and Need

Consultant for Comprehensive Country Gaps and Needs Assessment at UNODC

Location :

Colombo, SRI LANKA

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

20-Feb-2019

Application Deadline :

14-Feb-19 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

National Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

3 months

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

3 months

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

Objective of the assignment:

An individual will be hired to conduct a comprehensive country gaps and needs assessment on the criminal justice response to trafficking in persons in Sri Lanka. The assignment includes analysing new and emerging forms of trafficking in Sri Lanka. Information will be collected through focused analysis of secondary information available online, through websites, journals, reports, media articles, and other publicly available information. Information will also be supplemented through communication with key government officials, members of the National Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force, law enforcement (LE), non-governmental organisation (NGO) counterparts and other experts. Information from stakeholder consultations (to be organised by UNODC) will also be collected by the individual, to inform the detailed analysis.

It is expected that information collated from these various sources will be analysed and put together in the form a comprehensive gap and needs assessment report, including a brief assessment of policies and programmes and with a section analysing new and emerging forms of human trafficking, as a part of the document.

Background of the assignment

Over the years, human trafficking flows have modified to ever increasing levels of complexity. Geographical factors such as long and porous borders, as well as adverse human security conditions, climatic disasters and emergencies, and socio-economic factors such as gender imbalance, social stigmatisation of female victims of violence, poverty and lack of local sustainable livelihoods, coupled with misinformation, lack of adequate awareness, have also led to forced or unsafe migration, and fed into the increasingly complex push and pull factors of trafficking. Technological advances including mobile connectivity, internet availability and usage, on the one hand have led to increased advancements, while on the other hand have also, created opportunities for predatory traffickers, as well as modified the type of abuse of those trafficked.

While Member States have done significant efforts to prevent and address TIP, a few key challenges persist. These include:

Low levels of awareness and reporting of TIP cases;
Limited capacity to identify, investigate, prosecute and adjudicate trafficking in persons on the part of criminal justice practitioners and judicial officers;
Lack of cooperation between States in all aspects – from rescue to investigation and prosecution;
Links with other crimes (i.e. corruption, drug trafficking, money laundering, cyber-crime);
Lack of adequate protection and assistance to victims.

Preventing and countering human trafficking requires a comprehensive response founded on assistance and protection of victims, sound legislation and policies, and rigorous enforcement by the criminal justice system, as well as a sound migration policy and regulation of the labour markets. In order for the needed response to be effective, it must be holistic, taking into consideration a range of issues from the identification, protection, support and access to justice of victims of trafficking and the protection of witnesses to the prosecution of traffickers. However, for adequate responses to be devised and implemented, there needs to be a comprehensive understanding of the patterns, trends and situation on the ground. This is a prerequisite to implement robust evidence-based responses.

UNODC is currently implementing a global project to address some of these challenges. In South Asia, this project is being implemented in India and Sri Lanka. This project will assess the current situation of trafficking in Sri Lanka, deliver technical support to the key stakeholders to increase their ability to identify, investigate, prosecute and adjudicate trafficking in persons and to protect and support victims and witnesses, and share the good practices being implemented in the region through the UNODC TIP-platform.

Scope of work and expected outputs/ deliverables:

As a part of the project activities in Sri Lanka, UNODC would like to commission a consultant for preparing a comprehensive country gaps and needs assessment on the criminal justice response to trafficking in persons including analysing new and emerging forms of trafficking.

This gap and needs assessment will be a key document for identifying the needs of the criminal justice system to adequately address the trafficking in persons situation in the country.

The consultant is expected to carry out comprehensive gaps and needs assessment based on the information collected through desk research and contacting stakeholders, and prepare a well-written, needs assessment document.

The overarching scope of work and expected outputs/deliverables will be;

- Carry out detailed secondary/desk research through material available online and in printed form, such as relevant websites, journals, reports, media articles, etc.;

Collect information through phone/ email/ Skype and where possible, direct contact with key stakeholders, such as government functionaries, UN agencies, NGOs, AHTUs, nodal officers of TIP, judicial academies, prosecutors and other experts etc. working on AHT.;

- Collect information shared at UNODC stakeholder consultations, at discussions, as presentations, as well as through direct contact with the attendees.

Note: If the consultant anticipates some necessary field travel, it should be budgeted in the proposal.

Expected deliverables and dates and details as to how the work must be delivered and payment terms:

Deliverable - Output - Working days - Percentage of payment.

1) Research design -Document that describes how the research will be carried out, primary and secondary sources and time line and plan of action - 5 working days - 10% payment;

2) Conduct Analysis and present findings to key stakeholders - Review all available sources of information; Conduct interviews with key informants across the sectors to complete the desk review; Submit detailed draft and Present preliminary findings at a project stakeholder meeting - 25 working days - 30% payment

3) Complete detailed research - Complete the draft report as defined in the research design with accompanying presentations - 25 working days - 25% payment

4) Deliver findings to the stakeholders - Deliver findings to members of the National Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force/ other relevant stakeholders and to UNODC - 2 working days - 20% payment

5) Revise and finalize the research - Complete the final report as defined in the research design - 3 working days - 15% payment

Time-frame:

The Contract will be for total of 60 days from the 20th February to 20th May 2019.

Duties and Responsibilities

Reporting and communication:

The consultant will work under the overall supervision of the Representative/Deputy Representative UNODC Regional Office for South Asia (ROSA), and under the Programme Coordinator and Country Programme officer for Sri Lanka.

Competencies

Excellent understanding of the emerging issues related to human trafficking, including of the online/cyber dimensions.
Experience of having worked within the criminal justice sector;
Knowledge of and practical experience in conducting assessments and gap analysis;
Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Power-Point etc.);
Excellent writing, editing, and oral communication skills in English.

Required Skills and Experience

Experience

At least 12 years of experience in the field of human rights, social/inclusive development, child rights and some experience in preventing and countering human trafficking;

Award of the contract:

The contract shall be awarded to the individual whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

Responsive to the criterion outlined in the TOR.
Having received the highest score of a predetermined set of technical and financial criterion specific to the solicitation and based on cumulative criterion.

Technical Criteria weight - 70 marks:

Educational Qualification - 10 points
Experience in the rule of law and criminal justice field and some experience in human trafficking issues - 20 points
Experience in research/assessments/gap analysis - 20 points
Experience of South Asian development context and working with the government and development partners in the region (in particular within Sri Lanka) – 20 points.

Financial Criteria weight - 30 marks:

Technical and Financial Proposals to be submitted separately.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points (70% of the total technical points) would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Note:

Any kind of miscellaneous charges i.e. internet, phone etc. would not be reimbursed;
Please note proposals without financial proposal will not be considered;
Individuals working with institutions may also apply, contract would be issued in the name of institution for the specific services of individual;

Contact information for queries related to the Request for Proposals:

For any clarification please contact: deepika.naruka@un.org or anusha.munasinghe@un.org